Harvey Weinstein was indicted on rape and criminal sex act charges, furthering the first criminal case to arise from a slate of sexual misconduct allegations against the former movie mogul.

Weinstein's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he would "vigorously defend" against the indictment and ask a court to dismiss it. He called the allegations "unsupported" and reiterated that Weinstein strongly denies them.

The indictment came hours after Weinstein's lawyer said the film producer would decline to testify before the grand jury because there wasn't enough time to prepare him and "political pressure" made an indictment unavoidable.

Vance, a Democrat, came under public pressure from women's groups to prosecute Weinstein after declining to do so in 2015, when an Italian model went to police to say Weinstein had groped her during a meeting.

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